Ravi Menon

The “Sabarimala controversy” is at a feverish pitch and social media is spewing out such bizarre rants that one is forced to think a peculiar madness has crept into its populace.For India has a multitude of challenges — endemic poverty, glaring inequality, malnutrition and 50 million stunted children — yet its citizenry is engaged in hair splitting arguments on a deity’s celibate status.That having been said, the heat and dust rising from this controversy is ominous.Within a short time the new guidelines issued by India’s Supreme Court will go into effect and that can lead to a serious law and...

The “Sabarimala controversy” is at a feverish pitch and social media is spewing out such bizarre rants that one is forced to think a peculiar madness has crept into its populace.For India has a multitude of challenges — endemic poverty, glaring inequality, malnutrition and 50 million stunted children — yet its citizenry is engaged in hair splitting arguments on a deity’s celibate status.That having been said, the heat and dust rising from this controversy is ominous.Within a short time the new guidelines issued by India’s Supreme Court will go into effect and that can lead to a serious law and...

India-Pakistan relations are like the weathercock. General Mitchener, in Bernard Shaw’s play Press Cuttings, mocks Lady Corinthia, ‘Will you …. blow my brain out, I should prefer it to any further effort to follow the gyrations of the weathercock you no doubt call your mind. To get one’s head around India-Pakistan relations and in specific the recent happenings, is as challenging, as reading Lady Corinthia’s mind.Recently India agreed to talk to Pakistan on the sidelines of the ongoing session at the UN, only to call it off, almost immediately. Why?India’s reasons, though many, are unconvincing. The Burhan Wani stamp release...

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the national volunteer organisation, held a three-day conclave recently in Delhi. And the chief of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, made some startling statements at the convention. Some so staggering that they seemingly upended the RSS’s core beliefs; he even urged its followers to move beyond some of the more contentious and toxic comments made by the organisation’s founder K.B. Hedgewar.Was Bhagwat’s effort simply an image makeover, intended for the upcoming 2019 elections, or a genuine pivot, or a radical departure from its long-held ideological position? Is there a full-blown revisionism underway, and a creeping acceptance...

Gulf News recently caught up with Prashant Bhushan, rights activist and one of India’s leading lawyers. In this exclusive, he walks us through his unusual career, his early interest in environment and anti-corruption drives, his unequivocal opinions on ‘case law judges’, the intriguing Judge Loya case and the current political scenario.GULF NEWS: You have been described as a lawyer, activist and politician. The First Post caricatured you as 2G’s Dabangg (Dabangg, a hit Bollywood film). Play on Dabangg, a fearless crusader, who exposed the 2G Spectrum scandal, senior advocate Colin Gonzales who heads the Human Rights Law Network, New York,...

Ravi India celebrates its 72nd Independence Day today. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the most followed Indian on social media, unsurprisingly used his twitter handle to ask for ideas for his Independence Day speech. He also happens to be the best dressed prime minister the country has had. And speculation is rife on the head gear he will choose to wear for the event especially after Congress party’s Shashi Tharoor’s comments set off a firestorm. The Independence Day speech is a report card.A listing of the achievements of the government of the day and a peep into the future, a...

On January 12, 2018, all hell broke loose at India’s Supreme Cour. Four of the senior-most judges rushed out of court and held a pres conference to revolt against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) — Dipak Misra.Since then, the mutiny has gathered momentum to further sully the reputation of the court, one of the few pillars of the Indian state that has strived to remain above partisan politics. If that infamous rebellion was a first in the history of the apex court, then the recent attempt by the Congress part-led Opposition to impeach a sitting CJI, is its nadir.India,...

At 10.30am, on January 12, 2018, the bailiffs went through their routine in India’s Supreme Court, shouting “All rise” and there was nothing to suggest something extraordinary was about to happen. But precisely at 11.20am, four of the senior-most judges of the apex court abruptly rose from their respective benches and hurried out of the court and this set off shock waves around the country. Wild rumours spread immediately. Fortunately, these speculations were quickly laid to rest when they held an impromptu press conference in Justice Chelameswar’s residence. Sadly, however, the tremors from that astonishing press conference are yet to...